Category: Pics

I got an offer for printing an online photo flipbook from Zoomin.com. This was the start and what I discovered was major fun. With a six month old daughter what better would I want to do than click her photos and print them and store them in style for posterity. This is exactly what Zoomin helps me to do.

Once you start with the making your photo flipbook, it is a simple and very appealing for my creative senses. One can import already uploaded photo albums from other online services like Picasa and Flickr and then choose the pics for the flipbook. Zoomin places the chosen pics in order, but you can customise and change as you want to. The available background patterns come out very well when printed. And coming to cost of your precious memories, it is just about Rs.350/- including postage and taxes. One can also use their i-mint points to pay for it. Their service is prompt and the flipbook comes home in courier within a week’s time.

The single photos seemed a tad pricey after postage and taxes on them, but the flipbooks are totally worth it. Compared to Snapfish and Kodak Gallery, the prices here at Zoomin are cheaper. The overall service and product are very good.

For anyone who would want their pics printed and preserved with a personal touch of your creativity, go ahead and try http://www.Zoomin.com

April and May are two of the hottest months in Hyderabad. There is no escape and rarely any respite. Over the last few days, even the morning cool breeze that lasted till around 9 A.M, is now becoming warm by 7:30 A.M. But then, I am not here to crib about Hyd weather.

Folks, one reason for which I am particularly proud to be from Andhra Pradesh is because of the awesome, delicious and simply heavenly Mangoes that this state can produce. With the onset of the hot summer, come the welcoming Mangoes. Bangenpalli (cut mango), Rasalu (pulpy mango, hard to describe, but heavenly to eat) just fill the market yeards. If there was one reason to be back in Andhra in the summer, then it has to be Mango. I hate being away from India, especially in summer, only because of the mangoes. I have eaten the other Indian varieties like the Alphonso, but they are undoubtedly poor cousins. There is no comparision and simply no match.

We got the first batch of the cut mangoes yesterday and they were ultra-yummmmy. Go get your own. Currently, a kilo is proced at Rs.50, one might have to bargain a bit to get the fruit vendor to that cost.

So, it is once again time for the yummy season of curd-rice and mango to begin!

A shoe is a cover to one’s feet and we do not need introductions to the varieties and models available in the market. But I want to touch a different chord today; a look at various shapes of the feet and the shoes available for them in the market for large feet.

It isn’t a crib, but finding a shoe, it could be a sandal, casual shoe, work shoe, party wear, in short anything that I ever wanted to buy for my feet, I haven’t been particularly lucky in finding either good stores or good models that would cater to my requirement. As a child, my feet grew at a pace that upon hindsight seem to beat the bean stalk from the Jack and the Bean stalk. So in short, I used to visit the shoe stores on a regular basis with my father for a new set of school shoes, both white and black. Then, I didn’t realise the repercussion of all this, well I was naive, genuinely naive, unlike the children of today (well that calls for another blog). So, what happened after all this, my feet reached a size that now compete with my dad’s shoe size and my feet size do not particularly confirm to the usual genuine ladies feet size. Added to all this, my feet are pretty broad too and I know it that there is nothing really feminine about them. I just add a touch of nail polish to guise them.

You might wonder, as to why am I giving all these mundane details, but you will realise the relevance. To make it simple for many of you, it is not easy to try and look for ladies shoes, when one’s feet seem to be more suited for menswear. After a lot of exploration, I have found Bata to be the only place where I end up finding shoes that:

Fit my feet

Are bearable to see and tend to cover most of my feet

Are comfy

It is only in the recent times that I have seen many women requiring shoe sizes exceeding size 6. One of my close friend also has a similar problem and to her credit, I have hardly seen her wear a shoe that they has been made for her. Out of India, the options are higher, but this is only towards the West of India, because the Easterners are small built and in all my long stay in Singapore, I hardly could find a proper shoe. Some shoes that suited beautifully are taken off the shelves and the models discontinued, I really wonder why!

I always wanted to wear stilettos and some of those fashionable shoes. But with the kind of feet I have, can never imagine wearing them. I did try and miserably failed – by bruising my feet beyond words. But all said and done the feet need maximum maintanence and are actually the epicenter for some of the important nerves. To add some silver lining to my feet, I have a friend who is feet-fetish and to top it, finds my feet very attractive. Can u beat that?

The only pair of shoe that suited me exceedingly was one I bought in the US – Sketchers. These are shoes that have laces only as a farce and one can slip one’s feet in comfortably – slip-ons in the guise of proper shoes. Unfortunately, I can only wear them when I go for a walk, as the weather otherwise is too hot for fully covered shoes. Hush Puppies is another brand, which cater to the three top reasons for me to buy a shoe. Catwalk is another brand which has chic designs and is comfortable to wear. Trust me, none of the local brands ever seem to be comfortable for regular use. So yes, my list of possible shoes to cover my large feet – ends here.

A general disclaimer remains that one would have to search through these shops too to find the right fit. Hence, to all those people with large feet and those women who have trouble finding the right shoes, I dedicate this blog, wish you all the best always in finding the right pair of shoes.

PS: There is a possibility; I might have missed some of the other possible options, in that case, feel free to comment. I would love to have more options for my feet.

There are some cherished dreams, some secret desires, some things one has always wanted to do and some places that one always wanted to visit. Australia is among the top few countries I always wanted to visit. Out here on a short official trip, I have a pretty decent opportunity to visit some parts of Western Australia to be precise, Perth

and its surroundings. Quite an unexpected place to go when visiting this country, but that’s how I have always been and I am enjoying every minute of it.

After all the hustle-bustle and loads of attention from you-know-who, it suddenly feels very lonely. Tough is the word. But am sure we can get through. Probably worth the effort now, really??!!??

“Oceans apart day after day…..and I can’t seem to find my way…”

I covered my 14 hour journey in two steps with a couple of hours stop-over at Singapore. Trust me, I couldn’t sleep more than a couple of hours all through. Yes, for the soporiphic creature I am, it is actually very tough to sleep in an air-plane. Let me clear your doubts, I flew by the Singapore airlines and it is among the most comfortable airline to fly by. I just seem to have too many attractions every time I fly. The take-off, the view, the movies (managed to catch on two movies that I missed watching – Guru and Music & Lyrics), oh! well, the food is something not to be missed either. For all the things I end up trying and sometimes miserably failing, I enjoyed my meals on-board too. Wouldn’t want to alarm anyone, but all said and done the air-hostess on Singapore Airlines are mostly very pretty and I really envy the way they do their hair. I can never dream of having mine in any sane style ever.Coming to my pet window seat, it is always an attraction and here are some pics taken at 10000 odd meters above the sea-level covering the Aussie coastline.

Managed to settle down pretty cozily out here, will update with happenings in Perth in a short time from now.